Hi,

I forgot to mention the time between pregnancy. You can power breed if you want. That is where you never take out your males and your females are always pregnant. It is definitely in my opinion a inhumane way to breed and not the way I am going to treat my rats. I have no less respect for anyone that does it because it is a personal choice. I do not point fingers and I would never tell anyone how to live their lives. Just do not come into my yard and tell me how to live mine. Tons of big breeders breed this way. If you go that route you will have females with babies nursing on her and you have babies living in her. She will be undernourished and she will always be being drained by her young in her and under her. I am pretty sure rats breed this in the wild but I have not heard that being fact. I am going this direction: It definitely keeps the numbers down and is definitely more expensive. I breed and than let mom have her babies and when I wean 3 to 4 weeks later I than put her back in the pregnancy mode. I am just as new at this as you so I am trying this first. It definitely sucks doing it this way because you are feeding the females for weeks while they are not producing babies. We are probably talking about 3 to 5 dollars a month but that does add up. The money is not near the issue for me as it is the fact that I know what I am feeding my snakes now. I have talked with many breeders that breed this way and they feel the way I do. They want to feel that they are doing everything possible to keep their rats in the best shape possible. That being said, it is kind of funny how you can breed out 40 rats and they are all eaten 2 weeks after you weaned them. It is definitely a funny cycle. All that work and it is all eaten in a puff of smoke and you just keep repeating the cycle every 4 to 8 weeks. Anyway, I hope you find this post helpful. Remember I am not a professional rat breeder, I just play one on TV.

Regards,
Mark
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STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

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